


Across All Realms

by Quickspinner



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), All Lukanette all the time, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Dragon!Luka, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Lukanette, One Shot Collection, mermaid!Marinette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:01:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23072878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quickspinner/pseuds/Quickspinner
Summary: A collection of one-shots set in various Fantasy AUs, starting with Dragon!Luka and Mermaid!Marinette.Marinette bit her lip, and looked up at him, trying to decide whether she should speak before she could be sure.But how could one be sure of things one didn’t believe to be possible in the first place?(Each chapter is self-contained unless otherwise marked)
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 50
Kudos: 203
Collections: The Sky and the Sea Spinoffs





	1. The Sky and the Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was spitballling with some writing buddies (YEAH YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) and tossing ideas around and now I have a whole list of fantasy AUs to explore. This is my first try so we'll see how it goes!

The storm was over. 

That was Luka’s first thought as he drifted towards wakefulness. He no longer felt the electric charge of lightning in the air, and when he opened his eyes, his sleeping chamber was a dim gray instead of pitch black. He listened, but heard nothing beyond the usual sea birds and average mountain winds.

Luka lifted his head and yawned, forked tongue lolling out between his razor fangs. He rolled and raised himself on all fours, gold clinking lightly as pieces stuck to his scales for a moment and then fell back to the pile. He shook himself and then stretched, adding a new set of gouges to those already scoring the floor as he flexed his talons. 

He should probably eat something. Luka sat back on his haunches and pawed through the blue and black hair of his crest, then shook it out with a sigh. His home was a great mountain rising out of the sea, its volcanic heart long dormant. Isolated, but Luka preferred that, more than willing to make the flight to the mainland when he needed food or company if it meant being left alone when he wished to be. His lair was easily defended but rarely in need of it, and that was all that mattered to him. 

But it did mean that if he was going to eat something other than fish today, he’d better get moving now. He strolled to the entrance of his cave and launched himself into the air. He spouted flame, just to clear his lungs, and circled his mountain home a few times to limber up before angling for the mainland.

Soaring low over the water, more out of habit than hope, he saw a flash of gold under the surface. His heartbeat quickened and a burst of flame left him. Below him the gold streak grew larger and one very familiar red-and-gold fin broke the surface before disappearing back down beyond his sight.

Before he could lament her departure, gold rushed up from the deep and this time she burst out of the water in a great leap. She rolled midair and reached one pale arm towards him in a wave, and then she was falling, out of his element and back into her own, slipping back into the sea and sinking below his view again with a flip of her shining tail. 

Luka folded his wings and skimmed as low as he could, stretching one foreclaw down to run along the water. Marinette rose again to just below the surface and flipped onto her back to face him. Even through the distortion of the speeding water, he was sure he could see her smiling.

The flip slowed her and she quickly slipped behind him and out of sight. It didn’t matter. Luka banked and turned, one wingtip skimming the sea, and picked up his altitude, knowing that Marinette would already be making the same turn under the water. Dinner could wait, if Marinette had come to see him. He could hunt later. 

Luka bypassed his eyrie on the cliffside and angled down towards a large flat rock that jutted out into the sea below. Though he was a creature of the air, he had been born near the ocean, and he had loved the smell of the sea and the lap of the waves even before he knew what they would bring him. He’d been sunning on this very rock the first time she had come to him, insatiably curious and too brave for her own good.

He landed easily, fanning his wings to brake before sinking slowly onto the stone. His talons clicked lightly as he paced to the edge, lifting his head on his long neck to look over the water for her. Luka was satisfied when he saw a flash of sun on red-gold scales as she made another leap out of the water—probably to look and see if he had beaten her there.

He rumbled in his chest in amusement at her competitive streak, and lay down to wait, crossing his front legs and half-rolling on his side to stretch his hind legs out behind him.

Marinette announced her arrival by backflipping and sending a tail full of seawater into his face. He snorted, shaking it off his crest and neck spines, as she disappeared beneath the waves, clearly not deigning to appear until he had taken on a form that could actually speak to her. 

Luka rumbled another laugh and gathered his energies to shift. Moments later he stood and walked to the edge of the water on soft, silent human feet, and resumed his lounging pose, leaning on one elbow. In only a moment Marinette glided up through the water, catching onto the end of his rock where it dipped into the sea and pulling her torso up onto it. Her gill slits flattened into her neck, becoming almost invisible as the webs between her fingers softened and receded. Her fins folded down, the poison spines laying flat along her tail, the fins themselves draping in artful folds around her, far more elegant to his eye than any human lady’s finest gown. Her tail still swished behind her in the water; Marinette preferred not to change fully unless absolutely necessary (she claimed feet were itchy). Her dark hair pooled around her shoulders as her blue eyes lost their reflective shine, becoming more human as she gazed up with him with barely repressed excitement that made his heart beat faster.

There was no treasure in his hoard he valued more or found more beautiful than Marinette. And yet, she was the only treasure he couldn’t keep. 

But this was enough, and perhaps his moments with her were all the more precious for being fleeting. 

“Hi,” he smiled at her.

“I missed you!” she exclaimed. “You weren’t here last time I came.”

“You almost missed me again,” Luka said, lifting a hand to caress her cheek. “I was on my way out when I saw you.”

“Lucky timing for me then,” she giggled, catching his hand in her own. “I brought you something.”

Pure draconic greed made him shiver at the words, though he felt a little sad. He’d thought he’d made it clear they had gone far beyond such things. He butted his head against hers lightly. “You know you don’t have to bring me things,” Luka said. “I don’t need tribute from you.” He shifted and rubbed his human nose against hers gently. It was so inconvenient, being bound to these in-between forms that came naturally to neither of them. But it was the only way they could be together comfortably, so they accepted it.

Marinette pouted, but leaned her forehead into his. “It’s not tribute, it’s a gift. I like bringing you gifts.” 

Luka pulled back slightly so that he could see her eyes clearly again. Marinette smiled, sweet rather than playful this time. “Yes, I know what that means,” she said softly. “And you don’t have to accept my gifts if it bothers you. But I know what I feel. I know what you are to me.”

Luka was struck speechless for a long moment. Marinette searched his face, and then reached into the pouch she wore slung around her body, bringing out a necklace made of shining sea treasures. The centerpiece was a golden doubloon, plundered from some sunken human ship no doubt. The scent of gold made his nose twitch. The rest of the chain was strung with pretty shells, bits of sea glass, flashing bits of common metal that meant little to his kind but was precious to hers. 

Marinette set it on the rock and then pulled herself up further so that she could sit and face him. Luka drew himself up into a sitting position as well and pressed his face against hers, bringing up his human hands to cradle her face and hold her to him, overcome with emotion. “Will you accept my gift?” she asked him quietly, combing through his crest—hair—with her quick fingers, doing a much better job of tidying it than he had been able to manage on his own. It felt amazing.

“Yes,” he told her. “In a minute.” He released her and got to his feet, backing away to give himself room to shift. 

Marinette frowned. “Where are you going?” 

He smiled and answered her, just before the change took his voice. “I’ll be right back.” 

When he had his wings back, he reared back and lifted up. The short flight up to his lair took only a few wingbeats. It took a little longer to navigate the tunnels to the chamber that held the treasure he sought.

Luka had spent many an idle moment daydreaming about what he would give her if he could ever bring himself to ask her to bind herself to one not of her own kind. Why he had this piece forged, knowing he would never give it to her, he couldn’t say, but there it was in the box where he had long kept it.

He would never ask that sacrifice of her, but now that she was here, proclaiming her love in both his way and her own...he could hardly refuse her. He hardly wanted to.

Luka lifted the gift carefully in his talons. A necklace braided from the fur of his crest, which wouldn’t rot away in the water, and decorated with his scales, which flashed blue in the light like the shiny bits of metal her people coveted, but wouldn’t tarnish and would never need polishing. The centerpiece was a perfect blue diamond, the prized treasure of his hoard. A gift, as his culture demanded. A sacrifice, as demanded by hers. It was almost physically painful to part with it, but that was the point. Though, he wasn’t giving it up, not truly, not if Marinette wore it and Marinette was to be his, and that made it bearable. 

Luka couldn’t help himself as he neared the entrance of his cave. He planted his talons in the rock, took in as big a breath as he could hold, and loosed a roar that echoed over the water. He followed it with a gout of flame. He listened for a long moment, but no challenge answered his territorial cry, and he huffed in satisfaction before leaping into the air and gliding back down to the rock where Marinette waited for him. 

He didn’t change right away, pacing instead carefully to where she waited for him and lowering his head down to hers.

Marinette giggled, not shying away from his fangs or the horns spiraling up from his head or the spines along his neck as he rumbled happily, nuzzling her, shoving her gently with his muzzle until she laughed and draped herself across him, wrapped her arms as far around his face as she could. Luka gave a wicked dragon grin, blinking his large eyes at her once before he tossed his head, sending her with a startled yelp into the air and back into the ocean. He rumbled with laughter as she emerged, playfully indignant. Luka flicked his spiked tail smugly as she swam back—on top of the water, so she didn’t have to stop scolding him. Luka shifted, a human laugh in his throat. 

“That was mean,” she huffed, pulling herself back up on the rock.

“That was vengeance,” Luka chuckled. “You should know you can’t taunt a dragon without consequence, little fish.”

“Hmph,” Marinette pouted, folding her arms. Luka laughed again, coming to sit down as close to her as he could. 

“Now,” Luka said, leaning in. “Now I can accept your gift, provided you will accept mine in return.” 

He bent his head, and let Marinette lift the necklace over his hair and settle it on his shoulders. It was the only time he would wear it; he was already planning where he would make a place for it in his hoard. Marinette might pout, but it was his nature to hide away that which was precious to him. Surely she understood that by now.

He put his gift in her hands so she could inspect it. She squealed in delight over the glittering scales until he had to laugh at her, and then finally directed her attention to the gem at the center.

“What is it?” Marinette asked, fascinated with the way the light played along its facets. 

“A rare and precious thing, forged deep inside the earth by time and nature and honed with human arts into a thing of great beauty and value.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Besides your love, it is the greatest treasure I possess,” he told her as he pulled back, his eyes going to the bright blue gem almost against his will. He blinked and forced his gaze back to her face. “Humans will kill for this, my love.”

Marinette sniffed, still examining the pretty thing. “Humans will kill for anything.” 

“I am very serious, Marinette,” Luka said, curling a finger under her chin to tip her face up towards him. “You must keep it and yourself safe, or no force on this earth will be able to stop the destruction I’ll bring to the ones that hurt you.” He studied her face for a moment, and was satisfied by the solemn way she returned his gaze.

“I’m not helpless, Luka,” she reminded him, her fins flaring out slightly with her words, the sharp, poisonous barbs of her spines rustling. “I’ll keep it safe.” 

“Keep yourself safe,” Luka corrected her, taking the necklace back and slipping it over her head before bumping his forehead against hers. “I would trade every treasure in my hoard for your safety in a heartbeat.” 

Marinette shivered, covering his mouth. “Don’t say such things,” she whispered. “It feels like an omen. Besides you know I would never want you to do that because of me.”

“But I would,” he told her seriously, nuzzling her. “I wouldn’t be able to help it. You are mine now and anyone who takes you from me will learn the price paid by those who steal from dragons.” Luka put his arms around her and pulled her close, wishing he had wings to wrap her in, to hide her away from the world.

But he couldn’t. Every dragon knew how to care for his treasures. No matter how much he longed to hide her away, Marinette was a creature of freedom and the sea, and to take either of those from her would destroy everything precious about her. 

Marinette pulled herself close, pressed their foreheads briefly together, and then tilted her face to join her mouth to his. Kissing wasn’t something that came naturally to Luka, but the merfolk kissed, and so he had let Marinette teach him, to make her happy at first, but he quickly found why they were so fond of it. There was very little softness in his life, and he would have said he had no need for it until he felt Marinette’s lips on his own. Now kissing her was as easy as breathing and as hard to go without, the press of her sinuous body against his as welcome and as necessary as the touch of the sun on his scales. He combed his fingers through her hair, and lowered his head slightly so she could do the same to him. 

“Will you swim with me?” Marinette asked him.

“I’m not made for swimming,” he reminded her, chuckling, stroking the bend of her tail lightly. Her tiny scales were so different from his own armored plates, warmed from the sun and firm but pliant under his hand. 

“Humans can swim,” Marinette said, poking his human chest. “So can you. You can swim even as a dragon when you must, I’ve seen you. Surely you can swim with me for a little while as a human.” 

“Marinette,” Luka said gently, smoothing his hands down her arms. “Of course I will swim with you if you like, but you know it won’t be the same. It won’t be as it would with one of your own kind.” 

“I don’t want my own kind,” she said, using her grip on his shoulders to haul herself up even with his face. “I want you. I want you to kiss me and hold me and swim with me. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the same. It only matters that it’s you. I know a nice place where the waters are calm and even you can swim without fear,” she told him teasingly. “There's a cave where we can both rest. Together. In whatever form we choose.” She kissed him, and then nuzzled his cheek and nipped at his neck, lightly and then harder, making him jolt and gasp and growl with approval as she ran her tongue over the bite. She’d gotten as good at learning his ways of showing affection as he had at hers.

She smiled at him knowingly, and then with a twist of her body, plunged back into the water, looking up at him expectantly. 

“Can’t I follow you there?” he suggested. Her pout made her opinion of that clear and he sighed. 

Luka moved to the edge of the rock and slipped over to slide into the water. 

Marinette circled him, her fins brushing teasingly along his body, though she kept her poisonous spines tucked carefully away. She held out her hands to him and Luka took them. “There is one thing I must ask,” he said as she pulled him close, drawing his arms up around her neck and wrapping hers around his waist, holding him up in the water easily despite the waves. 

“Which is?”

“Promise me you will remember that only one of us has gills.” 

Marinette rolled her eyes at him even as her tail curled protectively around him. “That was one time, Luka!” 

“Once was enough, my treasure. I would prefer not to nearly drown a second time.”

Marinette wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re so dramatic.” 

“Dragon,” he reminded her, kissing her cheek and nuzzling her temple. “Do I need to remind you what happened the one time I took you flying with m—“

Marinette disappeared under the water and out from beneath his arms, and, unprepared, Luka went under for a moment. Then he felt Marinette’s arm around his chest and he broke the surface with a gasp, but she was already swimming, towing him along his back, and Luka was forced to shut his mouth to keep seawater out of it. He growled, but just relaxed and let her pull him along.

He was patient. He’d get her back later.


	2. The Hope and the Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They didn't think it was possible, but fate had other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I promise there will be other AUs in this collection eventually, but today is my birthday, and the lovely writers I met through the Lovebugs and Snake Charmers exchange have been gifting me fics and it's been both awesome and inspiring. So, first of all all the birthday fics that were spinoffs of The Sky and the Sea are now collected [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TheSkyandtheSeaSpinoffs/bookmarks) so you can go enjoy all of them. Second, their stories inspired me, so have this little add-on, and I'm hoping to have another for later today but I have to find a few minutes to finish and edit. 
> 
> Chronologically the correct order is:
> 
> [The Lizard and the Pearl](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TheSkyandtheSeaSpinoffs/works/23728246) by MotherWoof  
> [A Chance Meeting](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TheSkyandtheSeaSpinoffs/works/23680039) by ChromeMist  
> The Sky and the Sea  
> The Hope and the Fear (this chaper) (stop here if you want a happy ending lol because everyone who was expecting angst and tragedy will get it in spades in the last instalment, which is:)  
> [The Storm was Over](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TheSkyandtheSeaSpinoffs/works/23633134) by verfound

Marinette hummed softly in her throat; not the songs of her people that sounded so harsh in the open air, but a human song, one that Luka often hummed or sang in his human form. He didn’t care for human company the way his father did, nor crave human praise for his music, but the passion for the music itself was one he shared with both of his parents.

She lounged at the edge of the shallow pool in the back of Luka’s lair—their lair—trailing her tail fin and her fingers in the water that was a testament in itself of his love for her.  Luka had bribed and cajoled his sea dragon mother to help him connect, reinforce, and flood the dormant lava tubes through some combination of magic and physics (and sheer brute strength) that she didn’t care to understand, giving Marinette direct, comfortable access to Luka’s lair. His den was different from her sea home, but Luka was here, and he had brought the sea in for her, so it was enough. 

_This_ pool was actually an accident, formed in a depression in the cave thanks to some cracks in the floor that must have been connected to the flooded tunnels, and even once the work was finished this second pool remained, refreshed by the seawater coming through the tiny fissures but without any openings large enough to allow anything unwelcome into their home.

Neither had thought much about this second pool at first, too absorbed in each other and in making their now joint home comfortable for them both, in their natural shapes and in the human forms they took to be together. As time went on, however, Marinette found herself lingering more and more in and around this second pool, decorating it with pretty pebbles and some of Luka’s prettier stone treasures. She felt his eyes on her every time she moved some of his treasures, but he never stopped her, cocking his great horned head at her occasionally, but keeping his peace. Marinette doubted he would have been so calm if she had moved his things closer to the mouth of the cave, but since the pool was tucked in the back and there was no danger of his treasures being lost or stolen, he let her do as she pleased, only complaining once when she began sifting through the particular pile of treasure he preferred to sleep in. Marinette pouted, and teased him about his draconic sleeping habits, and he shifted to human form to tease her back, until she tackled him back into the cold pile of his precious gold, straddled his hips, and busied his teasing tongue with other things. 

Some time later he watched without objection, sated and rather dazed, as she walked away with several sparkling gemstones in her hands. 

If he thought her sudden preoccupation with arranging rocks both precious and common in the second pool was odd, he said nothing of it, but she suspected he honestly thought little about it. Dragons were constantly rearranging their treasures, after all, so why would he think anything of it. Marinette hadn’t thought anything of the odd urge at first either, though it grew stronger and stronger. Now she became unbearably restless at the thought of leaving this safe, secure pool, securely guarded both by natural location and her mate’s looming presence, supplied with fresh seawater, and cushioned at the bottom with...oh.

“Luka,” she said, looking down at the bowl of rocks she’d created in the pool. Looking down at her...nest. “I think I need to talk to my mother.”

Luka tilted his head and blinked at her, a draconic expression of puzzlement she was quite familiar with. Marinette bit her lip, and looked up at him, trying to decide whether she should speak before she could be sure. 

But how could one be sure of things one didn’t believe to be possible in the first place? 

Impulsively she put up her arms and Luka lowered his head at once, allowing her to wrap her arms around his muzzle and press her face into his scales. A noise came from his throat, the gentle croon of a dragon comforting its mate. One of the quietest noises he was capable of making in this form, she still felt it vibrate through her bones and she felt a sudden, irrational panic that it might hurt something that shouldn’t be there at all. “Stop,” she gasped, “Be quiet!” Luka fell silent, head drawing up slightly in surprise. “No—“ she cried, clinging onto him, and he froze “Don’t leave me.” 

A concerned rumble cut off almost as soon as it began. 

“Luka,” she whispered, “I think I’m carrying.” She peeked up at him, and could see that he didn’t understand. She pushed off of his muzzle and straightened, feeling a pang of annoyance. She didn’t know the right word to use, what one called a dragon who was—Ah, tides take it. “Eggs, Luka. I’m carrying eggs.  _ Your _ eggs.”

It was good that she’d let go of him because his head reared high on his long neck in shock, until he banged his horns against the rock ceiling. Marinette covered her ears as he bellowed in pain. “Luka!” she shrieked, and he quieted at once, feet shuffling comically on the stone floor as he bent and nosed her anxiously in another familiar gesture that meant s _ orry, sorry. _

Then his head tilted slightly and he inhaled deeply, nose pressed to her skin. He turned his head to blow the smoke of his exhale away from her, agitation stoking his inner fire beyond his ability to fully contain it, and then pressed his nose to her middle and inhaled again. Again he blew his smoke away from her, but when he looked back his eyes were soft. 

“You think so too,” she murmured, dipping a hand in the water to caress the pebbles she had arranged so carefully. “You can scent it?”

He stepped away from her and she felt the surge of magic as he shifted, and then his strong arms enfolded her and she leaned back into his chest with a sigh. 

“I can’t be sure,” Luka said near her ear. “You smell different, but I can’t be sure that’s why.”

“Why else would it be?” Marinette asked, a little irritated by his doubt. Now that she had voiced it, she was sure it was so. “Surely you’ve been around me enough to recognize all the normal changes in my scent.” 

Unruffled, Luka nuzzled her neck. “Most of them. But the scent of the sea is so strong it has taken longer than you might imagine. It’s not impossible this is something else.” He paused, and added hesitantly, “And even if it is as we think, we shouldn’t get our hopes up too high, my treasure. We have no way of knowing whether they will be viable.” Despite his words, she felt his hope in the way his hands spread possessively over her belly. 

“Pessimist,” she teased him anyway, rubbing her face along his cheek. 

“Dragon,” he reminded her, butting his head lightly against her. “How soon can you speak with Sabine?”

“As soon as you let me go,” she teased.

Luka laughed quietly. “My treasure, that will never happen.” 

  
  
  
  



	3. Shifting Tides

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little offering for MerMay! Feminaexlux threw out the idea some time ago of a merman Luka based on a betta fish, and we tossed ideas around and this is what I came up with. Betta fish have an extremely strong bite force for their size, so I translated that to physical strength. I still enjoy lionfish mermaid Marinette, so we’re just going to ignore the fact that betta are freshwater fish and lionfish are saltwater fish. It’s magic, just go with it.

Marinette had known Luka, not forever, but for a long time. He’d been her confidant as a confused, frustrated youngster in the throws of first love and unexpected responsibility, and though she’d never been able to read him as well as he read her, she’d learned a lot over their years together. She knew his patterns and how they shifted with his moods, she knew his habits, and she knew when he was putting up a front.

So when he asked her in his gentle, unassuming way if she would spend the day with him, but wouldn’t tell her why or what they would be doing, she had known him well enough to see the thread of tension in his body, the faint suggestion of stripes along his face that weren’t normally visible, the slight tightness around his eyes, though their expression was as soft and admiring as ever. 

It sent a thrill through her that she couldn’t entirely explain and didn’t want to examine too closely, she also knew how still looked at her, even all this time, when he thought she didn’t see, or wouldn’t mind. And lately, she was minding less and less. Marinette teased him for a bit in their usual way, and then agreed to meet him at morningtide. 

When morningtide came, Luka still wouldn’t tell her what was going on, but when he asked her to follow him, she did so with only minimal complaint. Just enough to keep up appearances. 

Really, she would have followed Luka anywhere he asked with even less information than he gave her, but he didn’t need to know that. Not yet, anyway. 

She was close enough behind him that she almost crashed into him when he stopped and turned to face her. He flitted out of her way with an indulgent smile that became a grin when she made a face at him. A quick flip of his tail sent him circling around her. 

“We’re almost there,” he said, possibly more excited than she’d ever seen him. “Will you close your eyes?”

Marinette gave him a suspicious look but he just shot a hopeful, excited one back to her. “Please?” he said softly, floating near. “You can trust me.”  It was more a question of him trusting her, actually. Luka was many times stronger than she was, but much less likely to accidentally injure her with his strength than she was to injure him with her venomous spines.

She did trust him, though, to know what he was doing, and he trusted her to mind her spines as best she could. 

Tucking her spines close, Marinette closed her eyes. She felt Luka take her hands and place them around his neck, his back bumping into her chest. “Just hold on,” he told her. “It’ll only take a moment.” Marinette joined her hands and let him tow her, trying not to think too hard about the brush of his fins against hers or the rhythm of the current he sent against her as his tail drove them both through the water. His hands stayed on her forearms, strong and reassuring, thumbs rubbing lightly over her skin. 

She could feel the sun through the water and knew they must be fairly shallow. The warmth felt good. Luka stopped and removed her arms from around his neck. “Wait here one moment, I just want to make sure no one’s here that shouldn’t be.” 

Marinette suppressed a smile at this typical territorial caution, though she didn’t like being left behind like this, blind and vulnerable. Luka placed her hand on something—it felt like a rock formation. He’d placed her on its sheltered side so the current didn’t push her. “I’ll call to you when I come back,” he said, and Marinette took this as her cue to let her spines rise into a defensive position, which made her feel a little more comfortable. She set her senses to feeling the water about her, but it was calm and she felt no danger. 

“I’m coming back,” Luka called from somewhere slightly above her, and she flattened her spines again. In moments she felt the press of water from above, and felt Luka’s hand cover hers again. “All clear.”

“I’m shocked,” she teased. It took a special type of brave, or a special type of stupid, to invade Luka’s territory. He was sweet and gentle and relaxed most of the time, but fierce when his family or his territory was threatened. 

“I’m coming behind you,” he warned, and she flattened her spines a little further until she felt his warmth behind her and his hand settle on her waist, just above where her scales ended. HIs touch made her shiver and his hand shifted immediately a little higher, away from the sensitive spot. “Sorry,” he said, but his voice went a little deeper and Marinette didn’t completely believe him. Lips twisting in a slight smirk, Marinette let him guide her toward whatever it was he was so intent on showing her. He was a tactile person, but rarely as openly flirtatious as he had been today, and she was very much intrigued. 

She felt the difference in the light and the change in the current as he lead her inside a shelter of some kind, though she didn’t brush up against any barriers. 

They were in a sort of cavern, but the ceiling was broken in several places, sending shafts of light filtering down through the water. In the spots of sunlight dotted on the walls, the natural outcropping and shelves of the cavern were piled with sea glass, reflecting the light in many different shades of green and gold and white and blue and making shifting patterns of color against the rocks. 

It was a sculpture of light and it was  _ beautiful _ . 

“Do you like it?” he asked, his voice warm and low and not...hesitant exactly, but tense somehow.

“I do,” she said firmly, and then turned towards him, lifting her hands to his face. “It’s lovely, Luka.” 

“Good,” he said, covering her hands with his own, and the relief in it was palpable. 

“It must have taken you so much time to collect all this,” she said, looking around again. 

“It did,” he admitted, holding her hand to his face, his fingers curling over his, and when Marinette met his eyes, she felt a wave of heat pass through her body as her heart began to beat faster. “You know I’m not an artist, not like you, but...I wanted to do this for you. You make so many beautiful things and I just...I wanted to make something beautiful for you.” 

“For me?” she asked softly. 

“Always for you,” he answered just as softly, taking both her hands in his and tugging her closer. “It’s always—” 

He paused and looked around, expression suddenly wary. “Something’s wrong,” he murmured, letting her hands slip out of his. “Stay here.” 

Marinette watched him in surprise for a moment as Luka swam to the entrance and stopped just inside of it, fins fanning out in a full threat display that made Marinette’s heart flutter for entirely different reasons than intended. He was stunning with his blue-black fins spread to their full extent, the muscles of his back and arms rippling with tension as he scanned for the threat. 

Marinette shook herself and fluffed out her own fins, unfolding fans of black spots on red that contrasted the bright stripes of her tail, the bold pattern declaring a warning as her venomous spines lifted into a defensive position. Ignoring his instructions to stay put, she swam to Luka’s side, careful to stay far enough away not to risk ripping one of his beautiful fins with her spines. He motioned for her to stay back, but she ignored that too. Luka was strong and brave and beautiful but when it came down to practicalities, she was the best equipped to actually incapacitate an enemy. 

After a few moments Luka sighed, and drifted back to her, though his fins remained flared. “I don’t see or sense anything. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

“You checked for danger already,” Marinette reminded him. 

“Yes,” he agreed. “I’m jumpy, I guess. I’m sorry. This was important to me and I don’t want anything to ruin it.” He turned his attention back fully on her, and Marinette’s pulse, which had begun to slow, jumped back into overdrive again. Luka just smiled, amused, she supposed, by her sudden fluster. He knew her as well as she knew him, after all. Possibly better. He had certainly been watching her longer.

Marinette tried to find somewhere to look that wasn’t at the impressive display of fin and muscle before her. “Aren’t you going to put those away?” she asked, swatting playfully at a streak of blue trailing elegantly from his arms. 

“Not if you like them,” Luka said with a slow smile. “Do you, Marinette?” He flicked his tail, sending a little wave across her own flukes and setting the lovely trailing fan of his tail fin dancing. 

“I like yours,” he added, boldly reaching a finger to stroke along the edge of one fin. 

She flicked it away from his finger and he drew back quickly.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, furling his own fins. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have—I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” 

“Luka,” Marinette said, flipping in the water and sending a pressure wave across his face. “Shut up.” She circled him once, and then again, close enough for her fins to trail across him, and then swam up to where the light poured in again, admiring his collection of treasures. She turned lazily on her back, and then upended to swim down again. 

“Luka,” she asked, facing him upside down in the water, curving her tail over to block the sunlight from her face so that she could see him clearly. “Are you courting me?” 

“Yes,” he said softly, and the simplicity of it set her heart racing. “Are you going to come down here so I can continue? Or would you rather I didn’t?” 

He sounded perfectly calm but she could see the flutter in his gills, the slight differences in his coloration that let on he was not as comfortable as he wanted her to believe. 

Slowly, deliberately, Marinette completed her loop and twisted, letting her momentum carry her against him. He caught her with the infinite gentleness that had always intrigued her, in such contrast with his strength, and his arms went around her as his forehead rested gently against hers. “By all means, continue,” she whispered, stroking slender fingers down his jaw and across his lips. 

“Marinette,” he murmured, “You know I’ve been in love with you for years. There was a time when it hurt you to hear it—” Marinette tried not to wince visibly, though she knew the way she ducked her head betrayed her thoughts to Luka, who had always seen her so clearly, even when her own vision had been dazzled by blinding yellow fins and an even brighter smile. “ —But I was hoping, lately, that you were becoming...less opposed to the idea of me loving you?” 

“Less opposed,” Marinette giggled. “That’s one way to put it.” 

Luka grinned slowly. “Feel free to rephrase it for me.” 

“Must I?” Marinette countered, and then, softer, feeling the crimson creeping up her face, she added, “You’ve never needed words to understand me before.” 

“No,” he said, his voice lowering as he reached one hand up, brushing the backs of his fingers along her cheek before sliding them into her hair to draw her close. 

Marinette let him pull her near and seal his mouth over hers in a kiss that started off soft but became bolder as she responded to him, pressing close and parting her lips for him. She didn’t dare tell him how long she had been hoping for this moment, when they were both finally in synch with each other and their own feelings, after all her foolishness. 

Lost in his kiss, she began unconsciously to match the rhythm of his lightly swaying tail with hers, and Luka moaned softly into her mouth, his hands slipping down to that sensitive area at her waist. “Marinette,” he murmured, nipping at her lips and down her jaw as he pulled her gently closer, blowing a small stream of bubbles against her neck in a way that made her shiver and giggle all at once. “Would you—” 

Something crashed suddenly through the ceiling of the cavern, and Luka threw his body recklessly into Marinette, driving her back and away from the disturbance even as she screamed and pushed him away, flattening her spines so she wouldn’t kill him by accident.

She surged away to get some distance from Luka where she could defend herself without risking him, and saw the source of the disturbance—a burly figure she knew well. 

“Kim, what are you doing?” Marinette screeched, moving towards him. The brown and gold merman fixed his attention on her and made a feral sort of growl that brought her up short, even more so as she caught sight of his face. 

Marinette had known Kim since they were tiny, and she had never seen the ugly purple pattern that was spread on his face before. Nor had she ever seen him look so...angry. Kim wasn’t the calmest of people but he had never looked like  _ that _ before.

“Kim!” Marinette gasped, and then yelped as her old childhood friend  _ snarled  _ and leapt at her. 

Marinette was more than capable of defending herself but the surprise and desire not to kill one of her oldest friends paralyzed her for a moment. 

Kim was knocked aside as Luka crashed into him, fins on full display and rage in his face. 

“Don’t hurt him,” Marinette screamed, as Luka drove Kim into the wall of the cavern. “Something’s wrong. He won’t talk to me!” 

Luka gave her a quick look that said he would do his best and then he had all he could handle as Kim fought back. The water inside the cavern churned and seaglass leapt and skittered across the wall and sank as they thrashed and struggled, hitting the walls of the cavern. Marinette flitted about in a panic, wanting to help but not sure how. 

Luka’s eyes met hers as he shot her a desperate look over Kim’s shoulder. Marinette understood his dilemma at once; he couldn’t hold Kim off for long without seriously hurting him. Marinette didn’t want either Kim or Luka hurt, but her own venom was deadly; if she intervened, she  _ would _ kill Kim. For a moment she hung in the water paralyzed with indecision, not sure what to do as her eyes darted about looking for a solution.

Suddenly she spotted something dark on Kim’s neck, just behind his gills, a fluttering bit of darkness that looked attached to him like a remora. No, it  _ was _ a remora, but it was pitch black, tinged purple when the sun hit it. 

“Luka,” she called, propelling herself forward. “Luka, hold him still.” She bit her lip, watching for her opening. She was going to have to be quick.

After a tense struggle Luka managed to pin Kim down against a rock for a moment, tail working furiously to hold them there as he glanced back at Marinette with a  _ now what _ expression.

Marinette darted in, skimming past them and slashing out with the spiny fins along her arms, far closer to Luka’s neck than she really felt comfortable with, but there was no time to think of it. She sliced the remora from Kim’s neck and flung it down onto one of the spines at her waist, pushing off from the wall of the cavern to get away from Kim and Luka before one of them flailed against her and hurt themselves.

It turned out to be a needless worry, because as soon as the remora was gone, Kim went limp, and Luka sagged with relief and exhaustion.

Marinette went to him immediately, spines folding down as Luka cautiously released Kim, who just hung limp in the water, the odd pattern fading from his face even as they watched. Luka turned him on his back and checked him over. “Is he all right? Are you all right?” Marinette asked, hesitating as she hovered around them. .

“He’s alive,” Luka said, leaning his hands back against a rock. “He doesn’t seem to be hurt, other than where that thing was attached. Doesn’t look like it even broke the skin, though, just...stuck there.” Satisfied that Kim was all right for the time being, Marinette moved toward Luka and he smiled as she fussed over him, cupping his face and running her hands over him. “I’m not injured.” 

“Are you sure?” she fretted, looking up into his face, and the soft look he was giving her made her face heat. Luka’s widening grin told her he could see the red flooding her cheeks, bringing out the pale spots that were normally nearly invisible. His own pattern flashed at her in response, jagged blue stripes traveling up the angles of his face, and she wanted to pout that his own markings complimented him so nicely, but the world was just unfair to females. “Thank you for trusting me,” she said, dropping her gaze, idly tracing a finger over his collarbone. “I could have hurt you if you’d flinched.” 

Luka chuckled, and kissed her softly. “You are dangerous and strong and beautiful and I adore you,” he told her. “And I would love to pick up where we left off, but…I think we’ll have to have that talk a bit later.” He looked at Kim, still unconscious. “I think we need to consult your father and the Guardian about...whatever this was.”

“Agreed,” Marinette said, shaking her head slightly as her brow furrowed in puzzlement. “This can’t be good, and people will get hurt if it happens again.” 

Luka hummed ascent, caressing her waist gently and then letting her go as he went to pull Kim onto his back. “Let’s go.” 

“Your nest,” Marinette fretted, looking at the scattered seaglass littering the bottom of the cavern. 

“I’ll build another one,” Luka said, sending a comforting wave of current over her with a flick of his tail. “I wouldn’t feel safe here after this anyway. We’ll make it beautiful together.” He caught himself and the stripes flared a little brighter. “I mean...after we talk. If you want to.”

Marinette returned the smile he gave her over his shoulder, and followed him out of the cavern. “Yes, we will,” she murmured to herself, incandescently happy despite the odd and ominous turn the day had taken. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Lizard and the Pearl](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23728246) by [MotherWoof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherWoof/pseuds/MotherWoof)




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